On Harune's Return
by reonaxx
Summary: She had already lost everything, so when Kamineko Harune was sent to serve under Orochimaru as a spy, she had no problem with it whatsoever. But coming home after 3 years didn't quite turn out as good as she hoped it would have. KakashixOC, rated M because sometimes I even surprise myself, and a little bit of GenmaxOC because he's almost as perfect as Kakashi.
1. Homecoming

The curse mark was burning again, and it took Kamineko Harune all of her effort not to screech out in pain. As agonizing as it was, she had to keep going to avoid getting caught by the ANBU squad right on her tail. Unfortunately, the 17 year old was having a difficult time focusing on her surroundings, and nearly crashed right into Konoha's most wanted criminal: Orochimaru.

"Kuso! Go-gomenosai, Orochimaru-sama," the dark haired kunoichi apologized quickly.

"Why so shaken, Harune-chan?" the S-class missing-nin drawled. "You did manage to get what I had asked of you, yes?"

Harune nodded enthusiastically, before fumbling through her satchel, trying her best to buy time. Orochimaru didn't seem to notice that the ANBU operatives were closing in on them quickly, and were seconds away from ambushing the criminal pair. She just hoped they would be strong enough to take the Legendary Sannin down.

The curse mark throbbed, demanding to be released, and the Sannin's dojutsu experiment hissed, placing her hand on the back of her neck in a fit of pain. The snake summoner didn't seem at all surprised or concerned, and simply waited patiently for his subordinate to finish cussing out the pain, as was her habit.

"Kuso," Harune smirked. She did it.

"NOW!" Hatake Kakashi's voice roared through the forest, and ANBU agents flooded into view, surrounding Orochimaru and Harune, who swiftly caught him in a chokehold, pressing a chakra infused kunai against her former sensei's throat.

"And after all this time, I really believed I could trust you," the rogue Sannin chuckled malevolently.

"I knew you could make me powerful, but I never expected this much, quite honestly," the Byaku-Sharingan blessed Kamineko snarled, a hint of amusement in her voice. She felt Orochimaru tense, having realized that it was in fact she who had been using him all along.

"You know, not all Konoha ninja are merciful," Harune said, suddenly bloodthirsty for the death of the Sandaime's former subordinate. She made the move to slit his pale throat, but a cry out from Kakashi halted her actions.

"Harune! We need him alive," the jonin reminded her, walking up to the S-class criminals cautiously. Orochimaru took the dark haired kunoichi's hesitation as an opportunity, and released the seal on her curse mark.

The 17 year old immediately dropped to the ground, letting out a sharp cry of pain and shock. Her body began to rapidly undergo the transformation to the second stage, and her skin went from its dark olive colour to a disturbing greyish tint. Her black hair grew even longer, and changed to match Kakashi's silver locks. Stunned, and fearful for his friend's life, Kakashi ran in to help her, only to be swiped away by the cursed kunoichi.

"Ku-ku…so, Kakashi-kun, use… Sharin-gahh!" The rogue jonin fought the curse mark desperately, and the transformation halted halfway, giving the otherwise beautiful girl a horrifying appearance.

"Che, such a pretty girl, I really did love having you around with me," Orochimaru cackled, "It's too bad I have to use you to kill these ninja."

All at once, the surrounding ANBU moved to attack the Sannin, and it was all that Harune could do to watch her own movements as she unwillingly defended her former 'sensei' ferociously.

_Control yourself, kuso, _the young missing-nin inwardly fought for dominance over her own body, to no avail. The best she could do was gain enough self-restraint to keep from killing any of her Konoha comrades, and only used enough force to knock them out.

Kakashi hung back the entire time, unable to bring himself to fight the girl he had promised Obito he would protect with his life. He had already failed to protect Rin, and he had allowed Harune to be kidnapped on her last ANBU mission, those three years ago. He couldn't fight the Kamineko, not under these circumstances.

All 15 ANBU agents were on the ground, having been knocked out by the cursed kunoichi. Orochimaru watched with malignant glee as the childhood friends realized that they had no choice but to attack each other. Kakashi wanted to look away from the sight of his broken friend, not because she was stuck between phases, half-transformed into the demon the curse mark had the potential to turn her into, but because she was helpless, the tears streaming from the eyes that were silently begging him to kill her and take her out of this hell.

"Chidori," the feline summoner mouthed, her defining Kamineko fangs protruding slightly.

He shook his head, at first slowly, then defiantly, but the look in the kunoichi prodigy's eyes had changed. Kakashi had always had a difficult time discerning Harune's expressions, but there was no mistaking the smug look in the Byaku-Sharingan eyes locked with his own. It was all too familiar, and it sent the ANBU operative back to the years when Harune had trained with him and his genin team, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. It was the look she had whenever the sharp girl had a plan, and he couldn't help but place his trust in her.

"Chidori!" the Copy-nin growled, and the forest air filled with the sound of a thousand high-pitched birds chirping.

_Kuso, this better work, _Harune thought to herself, staring at the lightning flowing from Kakashi's right hand. _If it doesn't, I'm dead._

The former Konoha jonin readied herself and got into a fighting stance. She had been pushing back the curse mark, and was slowly regaining full control of her body.

Kakashi couldn't give himself enough time to think; if he did, he wouldn't be able to bring himself to use chidori against the person he probably cared most for on this planet, especially after what had happened to Rin. The silver-haired ANBU charged at Harune with full force, fighting to control the overwhelming sense of fear and panic rushing through his body.

_Harune-chan, you better know what you're fucking doing. You better not die on me, not you too. I've been looking for you for three years. Three fucking years. And now that I've found you, you're coming back to Konoha with me, you understand?!_ The last Hatake thought as he felt his fist come into contact with the missing-nin.

"I'm a grown-ass woman, Kakashi-kun, of course I know what I'm doing," the dark-haired kunoichi smirked, and Kakashi realized that she had absorbed the impact of his chidori in her left hand.

It all happened too quickly; first, Harune had caught Kakashi's right hand in her left, the raw energy flowing directly into her body. As quickly as it had taken over, the curse mark began to visibly recede, and the Kamineko relished in the moments that she had regained her self-control.

Harune had always been known for her capacity to manipulate chakra effortlessly, but Kakashi never could have imagined that she could bypass the sheer power of chidori through her body and direct it elsewhere of her own accord. So when within seconds of having been struck by Konoha's Copy-nin Harune released the lightning from her right hand and straight at Orochimaru, who was standing defenselessly behind his former experiment, Kakashi needed more than just a moment to process the events that had just unfolded before him.

Harune's strike hadn't been lethal, but it was more than enough to seriously injure the Sannin. The pale snake-resembling criminal swiftly retreated, but the determined kunoichi made a move to go after him, driven by the flooding urge to seek revenge.

"Harune-chan! Don't, it's not worth it, not when you're injured like this," Kakashi held his reckless friend back. She opened her mouth to argue, but she felt residual surges of energy pulsing through her body, and had to hold on to the masked jonin for support. "We'll take you back to Kono-"

"Kamineko Harune, you are hereby under arrest by Konohagakure, under the orders of the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen-sama, for committing treason against the state as well as a variety of S-class criminal offenses. You will remain in the custody of ANBU until returned to Konoha, where you will receive judgement and atone for your crimes. Is that clear?" A nameless ANBU agent cut the childhood friends' reunion short, pulling Harune's arms back aggressively and fitting handcuffs onto her.

"Crystal," the 17 year old, not showing any signs of restraint or disdain for the man. She noticed the rest of the squad had recovered from her attacks, and gave Kakashi a fond and somewhat apologetic look before being pulled into formation by the nameless officer.

The whole way back, Kakashi couldn't take his mind off the captured kunoichi. He thought back to that last mission they had gone on together, the mission where he lost his closest friend, and the one person he cared for most.

* * *

><p>"So, what exactly are we doing again?" a 14 year old Harune asked, her voice muffled slightly by the ANBU mask she wore. Kakashi sighed behind her; she never listened to the briefings given to her squad by the Sandaime. Of course, the last Kamineko had always made an effort to at least <em>look<em> like she was listening, but Kakashi knew that more often than not Harune had her mind on things she deemed were more important. What such things were, Kakashi could only imagine.

"We're going up to Kumogakure to retrieve some intel on a rumored military coup that's supposedly about to take place, Kuropansa," their squad leader replied, somewhat impatiently.

The girl nicknamed Black Panther looked up at the sky, replying with a thoughtful 'hnn'. None of her fellow teammates were aware of the true nature of the mission the Sandaime had sent them on: to get the Sharingan-blessed Kamineko captured by Orochimaru.

The plan had been in development since Orochimaru's defection from Konoha. The attack of the Kyuubi on the Leaf had left Harune orphaned and without a sensei, and her academy teammates had been killed in action on their first ANBU mission to Sunagakure together. Hiruzen had thought it best to reassign the more than distraught kunoichi altogether, and had placed her under Yamanaka Inoichi's tutelage.

It was here that she learned all the ninjutsu exclusive to the Yamanaka clan, including the Mind Body Disturbance Technique, the Mind Body Transmission Technique, and the Mind Body Switch Technique. Within months, Harune had become one of Konoha's Intelligence Division's greatest assets. As disturbing a thought it was, Hiruzen knew that it would be her youth and inherent potential to become powerful to an even abhorrent extent that would draw his former pupil to the girl, which was the exact reason why he had chosen her for the perilous task of infiltrating Orochimaru's organization.

Of course, the risks that this mission imposed were all fatal, and so it was imperative that no one would be made aware of it, except for Yamanaka Inoichi, the Sandaime, and of course, Harune herself.

The 14 year old knew that if the mission went awry, she would suffer immense consequences, and if it succeeded, she would more than likely be subject to horrible experiments at Orochimaru's hand, but it wasn't this that distressed her.

"Inoichi-sensei," the young espionage agent asked tentatively, as he walked her back home the night before she was due to leave. He turned to face the dark haired girl, caught off guard by the uncharacteristic uneasiness in her expression.

"Could I please tell Kakashi-kun?" she continued, almost desperately. The Yamanaka clan head sighed.

"You know the answer to that, Harune," he said, not unapologetically.

"He's going to blame himself again; at least make sure he's not assigned to this mission. He can't be there. He's not going to let Orochimaru take me easily."

"I'm not the one who decides who goes on what missions, the Sandaime does. And he decided that Hatake Kakashi will be a part of your squad tomorrow, Harune. Besides, like you said, his will to fight Orochimaru for you will undoubtedly be fearsome, which will assure Orochimaru even further that he is in fact the one who holds all the cards," Inoichi reasoned. Harune looked down at her feet, knowing that her sensei had a point.

"Someone is going to have to look after him until I come back. Kakashi-kun has a powerful darkness in his heart, sensei. Promise me that you'll make sure he doesn't lose his way as a shinobi," the Kamineko's green eyes locked with Inoichi's, and the Yamanaka gave her a sympathetic smile.

"You won't be gone very long, Harune. We'll get you back within a few months, just enough time for you to retrieve a substantial amount of information," he reassured her. "Come here," he said, pulling her into a hug. The Yamanaka had grown very attached to the young jonin in the year and a half that she had served as his subordinate, and was reluctant to let her go on such a dangerous mission. He knew that while getting her under Orochimaru's possession would be the easy part, her retrieval would be far from guaranteed, and that is what concerned him the most.

"You're strong. You'll be perfectly fine," the blond jonin said, and he wasn't sure who he was trying to convince more: the girl or himself.

"Arigato, Inoichi-sensei," Harune said, a grateful smile playing across her face, tattooed with the traditional whisker-like markings, as was customary of her clan. Inoichi had to force himself to keep walking even after she had closed the door behind her, and hoped that one day, his infant daughter, Ino, would grow up to be as brave a kunoichi as his student.

* * *

><p><em>Nothing had gone right that day,<em> Harune thought ruefully as she trudged along, ANBU agents surrounding her as they made their way back to Konoha. She remembered how Orochimaru had ambushed her squad, assuming that they had been sent to capture him rather than complete some bogus mission the Sandaime had used to cover up his true intentions. Hiruzen was right though; the moment Orochimaru had seen Harune fight to protect her comrades, he wanted her. He wanted to harness her power: to add her to his collection of experiments in his conquest to learn every jutsu known to man.

And, as the feline summoner had expected, Kakashi had fought with a frightening ferocity to ensure that she remained his.

_"__Harune, you're all I have left. I can't even fathom a world where I lost you too. And for that reason, I will protect you with my whole life, no matter what," _Harune remembered the last Hatake's lifelong pledge to keep her safe the night she woke up in the hospital after having nearly died on a mission two years prior to her 'kidnapping'.

Of course, while the then 16 year old copy-nin was an undeniable force to be reckoned with, he was still no match for the defected Sannin, and Harune had to pledge her loyalty to him in exchange for the sparing of her comrades lives. To her, it wasn't even a matter of completing her own mission; rather, the only thing she had had on her mind at the time was ensuring Kakashi's survival.

It had been a full year before the dark haired kunoichi had finally lost hope in her retrieval.

And it had been a really difficult one.

Orochimaru had wasted no time in expanding Harune's potential to become one of his most powerful subordinates, and used the Sharingan carrier as a subject for his dojutsu experiments. The result was much more formidable than anyone could have expected, including the defected Sannin himself, and it was equally terrifying.

Kamineko Harune had become the first and only human carrier of both the Sharingan and the Byakugan, and she was in full control of both. When activated, the young jonin's otherwise green eyes would turn white, with three tomoe circling the center. It granted the last Kamineko power that Orochimaru himself knew he would fear if it was ever used against him, resulting in his branding her with the curse mark.

Thinking back on her days under the control of the former Sandaime's subordinate, Harune knew that had she simply fought with her Will of Fire, she never would have had to commit the horrendous crimes Orochimaru had manipulated her into. However, the Harune of then had lost all sense of her Will of Fire, having abandoned all faith in that one day, the Sandaime would send someone out to deliver her from this hell.

And yet the overpowered kunoichi had never forgotten her assignment and continued to archive all the information she retrieved from a trusting Orochimaru for the three years she served under him. Regardless of what the Sandaime held in store for her upon her return to Konoha, the Kamineko decided that it was her duty to relay every last piece of intelligence she had collected.

The martyred espionage agent had successfully completed her mission.


	2. Mission Completed

Hiruzen couldn't look the girl in the eye when she was first brought into his office by the ANBU squad leader. The feline summoner's eyes held a powerful darkness, and the mischievous smirk that had always played across the younger Harune's face had long since disappeared. Her three year estrangement from Konoha had had visible effects on the kunoichi, and the Sandaime felt horribly responsible.

"Kamineko Harune," he greeted slowly, nodding slightly. For a moment the 17 year old just looked at the man who had sent her on this suicide mission, but then opened her mouth to reply.

"Sandaime," she greeted, not unkindly. However Kakashi, who had been allowed into the office under the pretense of 'being able to act should the prisoner resist', noted his former teammate's much more frigid demeanor, and could only bring himself to imagine what she could have possibly endured. Even in grieving the death of her parents, their friends, and her sensei, Kakashi had remembered how Harune had always tried her best to remain bright and pleasant, but now, the kunoichi didn't put the slightest bit of effort into putting up a façade. She was hurt and angered to a much deeper degree; one that he wasn't quite sure even he could relate to.

"Sandaime," Harune repeated, after another moment of tense silence, "I know that I am in no position to ask for anything, but I would very much like to see Inoichi-sensei," she locked eyes with the Hokage, giving him a look that said that she would not take no for an answer.

_She was in every position to ask for anything she wanted, _Hiruzen thought to himself, feeling as though he had betrayed one of his own family members. He nodded.

"Kakashi, would you mind summoning Yamanaka Inoichi?" the Sandaime turned to the silver-haired agent standing at the doorway. Kakashi was perplexed by Harune's odd demand to see the head of the Intelligence Division, but he obliged nonetheless. With a single "hai," he went to seek out Inoichi.

* * *

><p>Although Konoha was a relatively large village, word spread through the shinobi community like wildfire, and Yamanaka Inoichi had just gotten back from a mission when he had heard tell that a certain S-class missing-nin had been captured by ANBU and returned to the Leaf. He, however, recognized the unreliability of simple rumours, and decided it would be best to dismiss it.<p>

But when the blond jonin heard Kakashi call after him upon crossing his path on the way back to his own office, the Head of the Intelligence Division had no choice but to consider the possibility of such rumours being true. There wouldn't have been any other reason for the last Hatake clan member to seek him out.

"Inoichi-san, Sandaime-sama wishes to see you," the 19 year old jonin said, thinking that this was probably the first time in his life that he had ever spoken to the Yamanaka directly. With a simple nod, Inoichi wordlessly started in the direction of the Hokage's office. Neither shinobi were particularly social men, and neither had made an effort to dispel the awkward silence that rested above them. Inoichi wasn't sure how much Kakashi knew about the situation, and decided that it was in his best interest to let Harune enlighten him on what she deemed necessary. The blond sighed internally; he was already thinking as though his former subordinate was in fact home.

Kakashi had been racking his brain for any reason as to why Harune could have possibly asked to see Yamanaka Inoichi above anyone else. It seemed obvious; the man was the only one capable of extracting as much information about what she had experienced in the past three years as accurately as possible, but the way that she had made her odd request lead her best friend to believe that there was much more to it than that.

When they got back, Hiruzen appeared to be leafing through reports, while Harune was leaning on the doorpost, with her summon, Kuroda, pacing the office. The ninken user noted how much the black panther had grown; she was easily as tall as her summoner if she stood up on her hind legs, if not even a little taller, and she could probably take out Bull if she really wanted to.

_As if Harune wasn't dangerous enough on her own, _Kakashi thought, eyeing his best friend's summon.

Hiruzen was the only one who acknowledged the two men who had entered, although Kakashi thought he heard Harune's breath hitch for the briefest of moments as he crossed her line of sight. The Hatake cursed his heightened sense of smell; the feline summoner emanated a sort of sweet, fresh fragrance combined with the metallic scent of her equipment that awoke some feeling in him that he couldn't quite place is finger on, and it frustrated the silver-haired jonin a great deal.

"Kakashi," Hiruzen's voice broke the Hatake from his transfixion with the dark-haired kunoichi. His head snapped up to face the Hokage, getting impatient. He just wanted time to be with Harune right now; he didn't care about all this bullshit. That could get done later. Kakashi hadn't seen the Kamineko in three years. Having to wait even longer when she was so close to being his once more was grueling and unbearable.

"I have to dismiss you at this point, I'll send someone for you when I need your services again. Go home and get some rest," Hiruzen said firmly, anticipating resistance from the 19 year old. Kakashi just nodded once before turning to leave, knowing that if he even tried to argue, he would lose his temper and would probably end up delaying his reunion with Harune.

Harune kept her gaze to the floor as she had been since Kakashi had first left to bring back Inoichi. She didn't want to speak to anyone before him; after all, it was part of her mission's protocol to relay all information archived to the Yamanaka immediately upon her retrieval from Orochimaru.

The instant the door had closed behind Kakashi, the young jonin looked up to face her old mentor.

"Inoichi-sensei, please, help me document everything. It is impossible for me to relay everything to you verbally, I- I wouldn't even know where to begin," Harune nearly pleaded, wanting desperately to rid herself of all the dreadful memories the past three years had harbored.

Hiruzen stared at the Kamineko in shock. The Sandaime had assumed that Harune had asked to see her ex-sensei because she simply wanted to after all these years, but the Byaku-Sharingan blessed kunoichi had had her mind set on completing her mission this whole time.

"Harune," Inoichi began, equally as taken aback as Hiruzen. His former subordinate stood before him, and removed the Otogakure forehead protector so that he could retrieve all her intel using his Mind Body Transmission jutsu. The Yamanaka ignored this and pulled her into a hug, taking in everything she had collected in her three years under Orochimaru's control this way rather than simply touching his hand to her forehead, as he normally would have.

The emotions the blond jonin experienced in the process were past the point of overwhelming. He felt every bit of pain, fear, and crushing sense of despair Harune had since her estrangement from Konoha. Seeing what he and the Hokage had put the last Kamineko through was enough to make him want to break down himself, and when the ex sensei-student duo pulled apart, he had to wipe away the tears that threatened to stream down his face. With a sad smile, Harune turned to face Hiruzen, who was sitting at his desk, watching the exchange.

"Sandaime, my…my Sharingan, Orochimaru-sama—" Harune paused, her habit of referring to the renegade Sannin as a superior of such high standing leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, "—Orochimaru," she corrected, "merged it with a Byakugan. I don't know how, all I know is that I felt like I was dying. It was almost as excrutiating as when he branded me with the curse mark," the dark-haired kunoichi unconsciously reached to touch the three tattooed tomoe on the back of her neck. "It's similar to the one Anko has."

"Can you use it?" Hiruzen asked, keeping an eye on Kuroda, who had not stopped pacing the office, however had now taken to circling Harune in a rather protective manner. While her summoner showed nothing but cooperation, Hiruzen sensed the black panther's obvious discomfort with their return to Konoha, and questioned whether or not she too had been subject to his former student's experiments.

"My Sharingan, or the Cursed Seal?" Harune was unsure as to what the Sandaime meant by 'it'. "I am in complete control of my dojutsu, Sandaime, however I refuse to ever release this curse mark of my own free will."

Satisfied, Hiruzen nodded, and stood up to give Harune a hug in his own turn.

"You have done more than you can possibly imagine for Konoha. Kamineko Harune. You are an exemplary kunoichi of the Leaf, and you receive my infinite gratitude," the old man said, tearing up slightly himself.

"We did everything we could to find you," Inoichi added.

"But Orochimaru is a very tricky man, and is difficult to track down," Hiruzen finished.

"I had given up," Harune confessed, petting Kuroda, who had now sat down beside her, on the head. "You have no idea how happy I was to come across your ANBU, even if they treated me like a criminal. I assumed it's because you had all heard of the offenses Orochimaru was forcing me to commit. When he's around, I have no control over my actions. He activates the Cursed Seal and I…"

"You have a trial tomorrow, Harune," Inoichi interrupted her. His ex-student looked up, fear taking over her expression. The people of Konoha would never forgive her for the crimes they thought she had been responsible for.

"There's nothing to worry about, though, I will rule you as innocent. It was not you who commited those horrendous crimes, it was Orochimaru. You were carrying out your mission and remained loyal to Konoha those three years. You are a prime example of someone who carries the Will of Fire, Harune," Hiruzen consoled the dark-haired girl. Harune let herself cry freely for the first time in years.

"Arigato, Hokage-sama!" the 17 year old threw her arms back around Hiruzen, sobbing tears of gratitude and relief. The Sarutobi looked over her shaking shoulders to Inoichi, who looked just as mollified as he. The worst of it was behind them all.

Kamineko Harune was finally home.


	3. Evicted

"Kuroda, we're finally back," Harune said happily to her summon as they walked down the familiar roads of the inner village. The black panther purred in response. It had been a while since the nineko user had called up her partner— Harune had refused to make Orochimaru aware of Kuroda's existence— so the pair was enjoying each other's company a great deal.

Night had fallen over Konoha just a little bit before Hiruzen dismissed Harune, telling her to go home and take a more than well-deserved break for as long as she needed. At the thought of this last Kamineko halted, catching Kuroda off guard.

"Kuso," she muttered; it had only just occurred to her that she had no home to actually _go_ to. She looked at Kuroda, grimacing. The freed kunoichi didn't even have any money to rent out a hotel room.

"Gomen, Kuroda, you're probably going to want to go now," kneeling down to meet her summon at eye-level, Harune gave the panther a hug. "Looks like I'm gonna have to beg someone to rent out a room to me for the night, kuso."

Kuroda gave her partner a low, disappointed grumble, making Harune laugh lightly.

"Oh I know, I'll call for you again tomorrow," the Kamineko apologized. "I don't think I'll be able to take on my first full day back in the village on my own anyway," she laughed. "Mata ashita, sleep well."

With a final look of displeasure directed at Harune, Kuroda shunshined off. Harune sighed heavily, trying to decide what would be the best plan of action for the night. Although she had originally planned to beg for a free room, that option suddenly didn't seem so appealing to the overly-proud kunoichi. Figuring that she still had time to resolve the issue, she continued walking through the streets of Konoha, relishing in long delayed return to her hometown.

* * *

><p>Kakashi couldn't sleep. He wasn't sure he wanted to, with Harune back in Konoha. The silver-haired jonin surrendered to his restlessness and got dressed, deciding to pass by her apartment and pay her a long overdue visit.<p>

The 19 year old was already halfway to the Kamineko's former home when he realized that it had been rented out to a civilian family shortly after Harune's kidnapping.

* * *

><p><em>She's so disorganized,<em> Kakashi thought, standing in the doorway of his best friend's dangerously cluttered bedroom. _I can't even see the floor…_

The Hatake carefully manoeuvred his way through the hazardous mess.

_That lunatic could have set up so many traps in here, it's a wonder I'm not a dead man—_

As if on cue, a kunai knife came flying from a corner of the ceiling and straight at Kakashi. The jonin dodged it, but just barely; he lost a lock of hair in the process.

_—__yet._ Kakashi stared down at the tuft of silver hair on the floor, thinking fondly about his teammate's over-protectiveness of her personal space.

"I swear, I love people, it's just, sometimes I gotta keep to myself, you know? And I just can't stand when people— GAI GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY HEAD—"a 13 year old Harune defended herself when Asuma had once questioned her on why she was so 'anti-social' in Kakashi's memory. The eccentric hippy-nin who had subsequently been whipped violently to the ground as a result of Harune's aversion to having her personal bubble invaded loved to tease his friend about her height. Though it was all in good fun on both sides, Gai sometimes forgot that the kunoichi two years his junior was freakishly strong, and he suffered dearly for it.

The black-haired nineko user had just never liked being touched. Being the rationalizer that he was, Kakashi attributed it to a subconscious reaction to the death of her parents, her comrades, and her sensei. It was almost like her tendency to push people away had manifested into a slight indisposition to physical contact.

Or maybe she was just like that; Harune's capricious personality made it difficult to tell sometimes.

Careful not to set off any other potential traps, Kakashi made his way to Harune's desk, where a collage of photos of their friends stood in a frame.

It had been nearly a year since the last Kamineko had been kidnapped by Orochimaru, and Harune's landlord, though one of those who had lamented her abduction alongside her comrades, decided that he could no longer keep her apartment vacant, and demanded that the Hokage send a shinobi in to clear out the missing-nin's belongings. Kakashi had volunteered immediately, feeling that allowing anyone else to would be an infringement of Harune's privacy.

But if the Sharingan-weilder was going to be completely honest with himself, he wasn't doing this purely for his missing friend's sake; he was also doing it for his own.

Kakashi missed Harune, a lot, and just being able to recover anything that had once had even a remote connection to the Kamineko offered some sort of consolation for him.

Before summoning his ninken pack, Kakashi scoured the apartment for any other traps his jonin counterpart might have rigged her small home with, thinking about how fucked over Harune's landlord would have been had he elected to clear it out himself. Satisfied when he found none, the last Hatake convened his canine comrades.

"Yo, Kakashi, it's been awhile," Pakkun greeted gruffly. The small pug's eyes widened as his nose immediately caught the scent of the missing-nin, and his tail wagged ecstatically.

"Harune's back?" he asked hopefully, looking frantically around for signs of the nineko summoner. At the mention of Harune, the entire pack began following her scent, eager to be reunited with Kakashi's childhood friend. Bisuke was especially excited; he and the dark-haired kunoichi had always had a particular affinity for each other.

Kakashi shook his head solemnly.

"This is her apartment, that's why you smell her all over the place," he said, sympathizing with his crestfallen pack. The moment he had walked into her tiny living space, Kakashi had been taking in the onslaught of the sweet, near candy-like scent the Kamineko had left behind, and it had been slowly eating away at his composure. The broken-hearted look in his ninkens' eyes brought a lump in Kakashi's throat.

Swallowing hard, the 17 year old tried to maintain his characteristic non-chalance, and explained the task at hand to the ninken.

* * *

><p><em>She must have realized by now that that old apartment isn't hers anymore, and I doubt the Hokage remembered to mention it to her,<em> Kakashi thought as he roamed the empty streets of the village_. If Harune's still anything like she used to be, she'd be wandering aimlessly through Konoha as well at this point, it's just a matter of—_

"Kuso! Ugh," the Kamineko groaned, rubbing her head. She looked up from her place on the ground to the obstacle that sent her flying, slightly dazed. "Gomen, I didn't think anyone would be around at this time, so I wasn't really paying attention to where I—Kakashi-kun?!"

Realizing that it was her silver-haired comrade that she had carelessly rammed into, a bright smile played across the jonin's face.

"Daijoubu ka?" Kakashi asked, slightly concerned when the Kamineko just stared at him, grinning widely. He bent down to help her up, and was almost thrown back down himself when she flung her arms around his neck.

"Kakashi-kun! Kuso, I missed you so fucking much," Harune said, tears beginning to fill her eyes up again. At first, the Hatake didn't hug her back; he was having a difficult time grasping the fact that this girl, the last person on the planet that Kakashi truly cared for, was finally back with him. But when his nose picked up that familiar candy-like scent emanating from her body and her face buried itself deeper into the crook of his neck, he realized that this wasn't all some sort of dream that would become a nightmare upon his awakening, but in fact reality.

When Kakashi finally responded to her hug and put his arms around her, Harune almost burst into uncontrollable sobs. His touch nearly erased all the memories of the past three years; they didn't matter anymore. She was back, reunited with her best friend. Kakashi made everything ok again.

"Can I ask what the hell you were doing just now?" Kakashi asked when the pair finally pulled apart. Harune laughed lightly.

"Running," she said casually. "It's been awhile since I was able to roam around so freely."

At this, Kakashi smiled fondly.

"Oh! Harune-chan, the reason why I came out here was actually to find you," he said, suddenly remembering her apartment issue. "Your landlord—"

"—booted me out. Yeah, I figured," Harune said with a small smile. Kakashi nodded. "I was just gonna ask some innkeeper to let me crash for the night until I got everything figured out," she said earnestly, kicking the dirt on the ground with her sandals. "Thanks for coming out to tell me though."

"Actually, I came out here to find you and take you home," Kakashi said. Realizing how that sounded, he corrected himself quickly, "I mean, like, you can stay over at my place as long as you need to, until, you know, y-you find another apartment. If you want, th-that is, you know, you don't have to, I just wanted to put that out there. In case you needed it."

Harune stared at the ANBU agent before her in slight shock. Hatake Kakashi, the famous Copy-nin of Konoha, had only ever been known for being calm, cool, rather emotionless, and well, _not a total stuttering mess_. Her signature smirk made itself visible on her tattooed face and she nodded.

"Oh thank the kami, I did not want to go out begging for a room, kuso," she laughed, putting her hands behind her head. Kakashi sighed in relief; he appreciated Harune's sensitivity at times like this. While the kunoichi was known to be bitterly sarcastic and sharp with her comments, there were instances when she decided to let things slide, and tonight, Kakashi's very atypical stammering was one of them.

"Well, let's go then, I'm getting kind of tired," Harune said, walking in the direction she remembered Kakashi's home to be, hands still placed behind her head as though she was lying down looking up at the clouds in the sky.

Despite having been gone for as long as she had been, Konoha still had a wonderful sense of familiarity to it that Harune had missed dearly. During her time with the renegade Sannin, she had often had to pick up and leave just when she was starting to get comfortable, for lack of a better word, to prevent Orochimaru from being captured. Knowing that she could call the friendly Hidden Leaf village home once again was more than enough to put a smile on the Kamineko's face.


	4. Tattoos, Haircuts, and Cup Ramen

Kakashi didn't really know what to say or do. He knew that he had missed Harune more than he could express, and he was even happier from the moment the reckless kunoichi had run into him on the street. He knew he wanted to tell her this, and he knew he wanted her to tell him about her time with Orochimaru. He felt like there was so much to catch up on with his best friend.

But neither Kakashi nor Harune were particularly expressive people when it came to their personal feelings, and so that left the pair in silence, even when they walked into his apartment.

Harune could feel the tension emanating from Kakashi, but she didn't know what to do about it. To her, the silence between them was a comfortable one; she didn't need him to talk about how much he missed her. She already knew that. And she felt as though he already knew how much she had missed him; how she thought about him every single day since she began her mission.

_Kuso, _she thought, realizing that Kakashi was completely unaware of the fact that what she had returned from was actually an S-rank mission.

"Well, the bathroom's just down the hall to your left, if you want to take a shower," Kakashi's voice broke Harune's train of thought. The Kamineko had never noticed how deep it was, and she didn't remember it being so— manly— but she liked it. A lot.

"Harune-chan?" Kakashi asked tentatively; the girl had been staring at him blankly, with a shadow of a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Hm? Kuso, gomen Kakashi-kun, I was daydreaming a bit," Harune laughed, internally cursing herself when she felt a blush creeping up on her. She hoped the jonin standing across from her didn't notice. "But yeah, I really need to wash up," she continued, brushing off her awkward moment. "Would you mind if I borrowed some clothes or something? I didn't really pack a suitcase when I left Orochimaru's lab," the dark-haired kunoichi joked. Kakashi didn't look particularly amused.

"Too early?" Harune asked, taking off the two katana slung across her back. Kakashi nodded, but couldn't keep from smiling slightly, not that Harune could see it behind his mask.

"I actually have all your old clothes in a box; I'll go get them for you," the silver-haired jonin said. Harune nodded and continued to remove her equipment, placing it in a pile on the floor beside the sofa.

_I doubt I'll actually fit in my old clothes_, she thought.

Kakashi came back a moment later, carrying a relatively large box.

"Hey, how did you manage to get all my crap anyway?" the Kamineko asked, rummaging through her old belongings.

"Like I said, your landlord wanted your apartment cleared, so I went in and did it for him. He's lucky he hired a shinobi for the job; you would've killed the poor man with your little kunai trap," the jonin pointed out.

Harune's eyes widened as she remembered her improvised security system.

"Kuso, gomen Kakashi-kun," laughed the kunoichi, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "No one got hurt, right?"

"No, don't worry about it. I just lost a bit of hair is all," Kakashi flashed his long-practiced eye-smile, sitting on the other side of the box, across from Harune.

"Now that you mention it, it's gotten a lot longer, you mophead," the nineko summoner teased, reaching across the box to ruffle her jonin counterpart's silver locks. Kakashi grinned.

"I get lazy," he confessed, rubbing his own hand through his gravity-defying hair. Harune sighed in mock exasperation.

"I'll take care of it later," the 17 year old said, settling on one of her old black t-shirts and a pair of black shorts. "I'll be back," she grinned, and made her way to the bathroom.

* * *

><p>The hot water felt ridiculously good on Harune's skin. She had grown accustomed to the freezing water that ran in the showers of the various laboratories Orochimaru had had set up around the world, so the hot water running from Kakashi's shower did not go unappreciated. In fact, the jonin stayed under the shower head until there wasn't any more hot water left to enjoy.<p>

The clothes that Kakashi had spared from her younger days, to Harune's great surprise, actually still did fit her— barely. The t-shirt fit her in such a way that made her small B-cup boobs look so busty even she was impressed when she saw her reflection in the steamed up mirror, and it was all she could do to thank the kami that her shorts at least covered her butt, even if they cut off literally just under the cheeks.

_Kuso, I haven't seen Kakashi-kun for three fucking years and now I'm coming out looking like some sort of gypsy slutbag,_ Harune thought as she grimaced at herself in the mirror. _Just act natural, I guess,_ she sighed before walking back out into the living room.

"I was beginning to think you died in there or something," Kakashi said when he heard Harune enter the room, his back turned to her.

"The hot water was really nice," the girl admitted, her loose black hair dampening the back of her shirt.

"Are you hungry? I don't have much but I found some—" Kakashi stopped mid-sentence when he turned around to face his old teammate, nearly dropping the prepared cup ramen he held in his hands.

Completely aware as to why, Harune felt her face turn red hot, and was suddenly very thankful for her dark complexion.

"I kind of outgrew my clothes…That'll happen after three years okay, kuso," she said defensively, trying to cover up by crossing her arms over her chest.

Kakashi burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"It's okay, Harune-chan. Y-you look good," he said when his fit was through.

The Kamineko rolled her eyes.

"Well if you're gonna keep staring at me like that, could you at least lend me something that won't totally tear off if I breathe in a bit too deeply?!" she hissed.

"Aw c'mon, no, I like it, Harune-chan. I swear you look good in that, don't worry," Kakashi said honestly.

"Pervert," Harune muttered when her best friend flashed his smug little eye smile, but obliged anyway.

"Here, take this, it'll calm you down you little hothead," the Hatake said, handing his ill-tempered friend the cup ramen.

"Arigato, mophead," Harune said, somewhat grudgingly.

It was the first time Kakashi really noticed the last Kamineko clan member. He had already seen her several times since the ANBU had retrieved her from Orochimaru that afternoon, but he hadn't had the chance to take an actual good look at the girl whom he hadn't seen for three years. And the three years had changed her. A lot.

Kakashi remembered his old teammate to have been much shorter than she was now; but it was only natural for her to have grown taller. Her hair was also a lot longer, and she now had two silver locks framing each side of her face reminiscent of the hair that he had seen grow when she had transformed under the curse mark. She was slim and her figure was well defined; it was obvious that she was a kunoichi, and Kakashi couldn't help but admire the tattoos that adorned her body.

He particularly like the kanji after which she was named that branded her outer left thigh; remembering the day she had gotten it.

* * *

><p>The silver-haired genin was training with his newly formed ninken pack when Harune had come to him, the day after she had graduated from the Academy and become a genin herself. The six-year-old's eyes were red and puffy as though she had been crying, but she had a huge smile plastere on her face, tattooed with the defining markings of the Kamineko clan.<p>

Kuroda, who at the time was about the same size as a fully grown Pakkun, came running beside her, greeting Kakashi's pack playfully, who responded in kind.

"Harune-chan, daijobu ka?" the eight-year-old Hatake asked, concerned.

"Look what my dad gave me!" the dark haired genin nearly squealed, lifting the shorts under her skirt just enough to reveal the kanji for "haru" on her left thigh. It looked like a fresh tattoo; the edges of the character were red and slightly irritated, but Harune didn't appear to be the least bit bothered by the pain, in fact, the huge grin she had had not faltered since her father finished branding her.

"That's really cool, Harune-chan, but, why did your father tattoo you? You're kind of young," Kakashi said. At this, Harune nodded excitedly.

"It's part of my clan's tradition," she explained. "We use tattoos to mark major milestones and accomplishments in our lives. When a Kamineko is born, well, we have a special jutsu that we use, and we're given our whiskers," the genin pointed to the tiger-stripe like impressions on her dark face. "Then, when we officially become ninja, we're marked with our namesake kanji. The next one is two bands on our arm, for a chunin promotion, and jonins have three bands."

"So you have a tattooing jutsu?" Kakashi asked, skeptical.

"Yeah, basically, mophead," the nineko user said, her laugh making the Hatake smile behind his mask, "It's sort of like a sealing jutsu, but it just leaves an imprint on our skin; it doesn't actually seal anything. I think the Inuzukas have something like it."

* * *

><p>The memory of Harune's mention of the Inuzuka clan made Kakashi absent-mindedly scratch his cheek, where he himself bore the fang-shaped marks characteristic of the ninken-using clan.<p>

Without realizing it until after the fact, the silver-haired jonin found himself scanning Harune's body for all the tattoos she had mentioned back then. The highly skilled kunoichi in fact sported every single one of them; all three of the bands hugging her upper right arm and her namesake kanji, as well as the ANBU Black Ops swirl on her left arm.

Kakashi had never realized that he had a thing for tattooed women, and before her knew it, he was imaging himself running his hands over her legs, kissing—

_Holy fuck, stop it Kakashi,_ the 19 year old snapped at himself. _Harune is your best friend and you haven't seen her in three fucking years; can you not be a total fucking pig, _his conscience growled. If he could have physically slapped himself without bringing on unwanted attention from the Kamineko, he would've.

Needless to say, Kakashi was more than taken aback by the kunoichi's beauty.

"You're not going to eat, Kakashi-kun?" Harune's voice broke Kakashi's perverted train of thought. She didn't have a very feminine and smooth voice like most women, but the way she spoke lent some sort of attractive element to its raspiness.

"Nah, I'm not all that hungry right now," the ANBU agent said, running his hands through his hair. Harune threw the empty disposable cup ramen out before grabbing one of her kunai lying with the rest of her equipment.

"Sit," she said, gesturing to the couch she was standing behind. Kakashi happily obliged.

"Kuso, it's like you were waiting for me to come back to cut your hair, Kakashi-kun," the kunoichi laughed lightly, trimming her teammate's over-grown gravity-defying locks.

"It never looked as good when I did it myself," Kakashi lamented. He loved the familiar feeling of Harune's hands in his hair; even before she had taken it upon herself to act as his own personal hairdresser, the girl had always just loved to play with the silver hair he had inherited from his father_. "It's a lot softer than it looks ok,"_ she used to defend herself.

"What can I say, I'm just great at everything. It's a blessing and a curse," Harune joked, finishing up.

"You actually are, Harune-chan," Kakashi blurted out. Harune blushed for the third time that night.

_Kuso, neither of us are acting like ourselves,_ she thought.

"You're just saying that because you missed me, mophead," the 17 year old said dismissively, but ruffled his freshly cut hair affectionately. "Now get out, I gotta sleep," she shooed her friend away.

"Take my room, I'll sleep on the couch tonight," Kakashi said, being the gentleman he was.

"You sure, Kakashi-kun? I seriously don't mind th—" Harune started, but was cut off by the ninken summoner.

"You'll sleep better on the bed, and if anyone deserves a good night's rest, it's you," he argued, standing up to push her gently in the direction of his bedroom.

"Alright, alright, arigato, Kakashi-kun," Harune resigned, turning to give him a hug. "Sleep well."


	5. Accusations

Harune awoke with a start the next morning, disoriented and almost panicked when she didn't find her kunai under her pillow, but it wasn't long before Kakashi's familiar scent surrounding her in her temporary bed reminded her where she was.

She found her jonin counterpart still asleep on the couch where she had left him the night before, and the clock on the wall above his kitchen counter told the former missing-nin that she had a couple of hours before her trial.

Thinking about the trial reminded Harune that she still needed to tell Kakashi why what had happened had; she had forgotten to last night. But seeing her over worked comrade sleep so peacefully on the couch made her decide that it could wait a little longer.

Looking through his fridge Harune learned that Kakashi was a man who usually just when out to eat; there wasn't really all that much in his fridge to look _through_. Luckily enough for her, Kakashi's organization skills well surpassed those of his cooking, and the kunoichi had no trouble finding his wallet.

She was halfway to the market when none other than Maito Gai attacked her with a hug.

"OH YOU ARE AS YOUTHFUL AS EVER!" the eccentric shinobi roared, flailing the Kamineko in his arms. Harune considered trying to wriggle out of his grasp, but she deemed it much more gratifying to mess with him a little bit; after all it had been awhile since she had seen him.

The second the mischievous kunoichi cracked her knuckles loudly and went limp, Gai dropped her, terrified that he might have cracked her neck.

"Kuso, Gai, you've gotten strong," Harune laughed as she helped herself up from the ground. Gai stared at her bug-eyed, as did Asuma, Kurenai, and Genma, who all seemed to gather around shortly after Gai's onslaught of love for the returned kunoichi.

"HARUNE-CHAN, I THOUGHT I HAD KILLED YOU!" Gai thundered, picking the short girl up again and crushing her in yet another hug.

"No…Gai I was just…messing with you," Harune choked out, struggling to breathe. "I can't believe you actually fell for that though!" she laughed lightly when the hippy-nin released her. "But shit, the whole gang's here! Well, almost."

Smiling, Harune turned to face her old comrades, who each looked more than happy to be reunited with the youngest member of their odd little shinobi family.

"Where were you off to? It better have been to come find us," Genma teased, pulling the kunoichi five years his junior into a tight, yet less rib-crushing than Gai, hug.

"How hurt would you be if I told you that I was more interested in buying groceries than I was in coming to see you?" Harune teased back, pulling away slightly to look up at Genma, who gave her a mock pout.

"Very," he whined playfully. He wished immediately that he could have come up with something a little more witty and clever, but he had quite honestly been thrown off his game by the young jonin's remarkable beauty.

"Then I won't tell you," she winked, and Genma was suddenly very thankful that he wasn't a man to blush easily.

"Groceries?" Asuma questioned. Harune nodded.

"Yeah, apparently Kakashi-kun doesn't eat at home very often; his fridge is empty," the 17 year old explained.

"Kakashi?" Gai's eyes widened at the mention of his arch-rival.

"You're staying with Kakashi?" Genma asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes; wipe that smirk off your face, Genma-kun," Harune warned him, half-jokingly. The senbon weilder grinned even more at the young kunoichi's defensiveness.

"What smirk?" he winked, putting his arm around Harune's shoulder and pulling her closer to his side. The dark-haired girl rolled her eyes, but didn't pull away.

"We heard you got back yesterday," Kurenai said gently. Harune laughed lightly.

"You make it sound like I came back from a vacation," she said with a small smile.

"When in fact you were busy committing S-rank crimes," Asuma said bitterly. At this, Harune's eyes widened, and she looked down. Orochimaru's former subordinate had expected a fair amount of hostility, but the youngest kunoichi of the group had just begun to get used to the accepting warmth of her old friends' welcomes, and Asuma's sharp comment, if she was going to be completely honest with herself, hurt.

"Asuma, those are only rumours. Besides, it's Harune-chan we're talking about; I have a hard time believing that she was actually behind all that," Gai jumped in to his friend's rescue, much to her gratitude. Gai's ability to so easily put the past behind him and move onto the future was a quality Harune had always admired, and at times like these, it was what she appreciated most about the otherwise peculiar ninja.

"And if she really was an S-rank criminal, do you think your dad would be letting her walk around freely saying that food is more important than me?" Genma added.

"Genma, is everything a joke to you?" Asuma snapped. "I overheard my father talk about the situation repeatedly over the years she was missing. Sure, the severity of her crimes might be exaggerated, but she worked under Orochimaru. It's not like she's completely innocent of everything," he reminded the group.

"If you'd overheard so much, you'd know that it was a mission," the accused kunoichi defended herself. "I have a trial in an hour and a half, if you'd really like to hear all about it," she hissed. "Now Kakashi-kun's gonna freak out if he finds out I stole his wallet, so I gotta go."

Letting Genma's arm fall of her shoulder and limply to his side, Harune started in the direction of the market, leaving the group behind.

"Asuma, why you gotta be such a dick sometimes?" the tokubetsu-jonin snapped at the Sarutobi once Harune was out of earshot.

"Genma, trust me, I love Harune-chan. She was a great friend, but you have to face the facts. The ANBU had to arrest her," the Hokage's son argued.

"Asuma-kun, she said it was a mission," Kurenai said, placing a calming hand on his shoulder.

"A three year mission? Guys, I know the old Harune was sweet and you missed her, but—"

"Kamineko Harune is a stubborn girl. Yeah, we haven't seen her in three years, but do you really think that she changed all that much? Because the way I see it, Harune-chan is the same girl we grew up with, and I don't give a shit how evil Orochimaru is; Harune is so set her ways that she wouldn't even let him sway her values," Genma cut his comrade off. "She's been through hell and back; she lost everyone. We're all she's got. Now if you actually believe that she's responsible for everything we heard she was, then that's your deal. But I don't know what Harune you grew up with to ever even consider any of that bullshit to be true."M

With that, the indignant senbon weilder shunshined off, leaving Asuma, Kurenai, and a very conflicted Gai, who had always had a hard time when serious conflicts arose between his friends.

"Well, uhm, I guess I'll go off to train now. I can't let my wonderful youth be wasted!" he tried to say with his usual cheeriness, and shunshined off as well.

* * *

><p>"Kamiii… Where did you learn to cook, Harune-chan?" a very satisfied Kakashi said between mouthfuls of food.<p>

"It's just some egg, rice, and fish, Kakashi-kun, nothing special," the kunoichi said dismissively, washing the dishes she had made. "What surprises me is that you didn't even have something as basic as that lying around."

"I'm too lazy to make my own food, and besides, I was going to go get us breakfast this morning except _someone_ stole my wallet," Kakashi grumbled.

"You'd save more money if you didn't eat out so much," Harune advised the jonin. "And it's healthier for you too," Kakashi saw her smile for the first time that morning as she placed a bowl of strawberries on the table for him.

Seeing Harune act as caring as she was being right now reminded the Hatake of Rin. His jonin counterpart idolized the medic-nin, following her around and always trying to be more like her. Naturally, Harune's mischievous and carefree character meant that she was nearly Rin's polar opposite; but Kakashi was able to catch snippets now and then of the effect his deceased comrade had had on her, and he smiled internally whenever he did.

"Arigato, Harune-chan," Kakashi gave a little eye smile to the Kamineko, who ruffled his hair. She looked at the clock.

45 minutes until her trial.

Sighing lightly, Harune went through the box of her old belongings; searching for the one dress she had ever owned, praying that it would fit. It had belonged to her mother, and it had been too big for her in her younger days; but now that she was fully grown, she hoped that it wouldn't be.

"I don't think I've ever seen you wear a dress before," Kakashi noted when the nineko user had come out of the bathroom. It fit her perfectly; the black fabric hugged her body nicely, the three-quarter length sleeves hung off her shoulders, and around her waist she wore a red sash. Kakashi pointed to it.

"Hey is that my—"

"—yeah, it's your scarf," Harune said, adjusting it slightly.

"You kept it?" the Hatake asked incredulously. Harune nodded.

"It was the only thing I had that tied me back to Konoha," she said, remembering when her friend had given her his signature scarf. "You used to wear it all the time," she reminisced.

"And you always used to steal it when you were little," Kakashi chuckled. "So at one point I just gave it to you because you seemed to want it so badly." Harune smiled fondly, but her grin faltered when she checked the clock again. She had half an hour.

"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked, noticing the quick change in her expression.

"I don't really have time to explain right now; I really gotta go," the accused criminal said hurriedly, and shunshined off to make it to the Academy in time.

Not a moment later, Kakashi got a knock on the door. It was Namiashi Raido.

"Kakashi-san, the Hokage would like to see you."


	6. The Trial

**_Hey all my lovely readers!_**

**_So I've posted 6 chapters of "On Harune's Return" up until now; I was just hoping to get feedback from you guys! I mean, I hope you're all enjoying my story so far, but I can't know for sure unless I hear from you every now and then haha :)_**

**_If it's not too much to ask, would you mind messaging me or something to let me know what you think so far, and if there's anything you'd like to see that I might be able to try and incorporate?_**

**_Arigato gozaimasu! 3_**

* * *

><p>Hiruzen had promised to clear her of all charges, but Harune would've been lying to herself had she said she wasn't nervous, especially after what Asuma had said.<p>

It was Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu who greeted the supposed criminal at the Academy entrance. Despite it being part of his job to remain neutral on occasions like this, Kotetsu addressed Harune warmly, and was as friendly to her as though they were classmates at the Academy once again. Izumo, being the more responsible and serious of the two, criticized his best friend for being so familiar with her, after which he genuinely apologized to their old classmate for having to regard her so dismissively. The young jonin just laughed it off; and thanked the chunin pair for having lifted her spirits before they left.

The Hokage's assistants had led her to a relatively large room, where she was sat down before the Hokage himself, the village's elders, and two other faces Harune didn't recognize, all sitting in a row.

At first she didn't notice them, but it wasn't long before the Kamineko realized that Kakashi and Genma were standing at the back of the room behind her. She could sense Kakashi's demeanor shift from his usual calm and collected self to surprised and unsure the moment he saw his best friend walk into the room, but Genma seemed utterly prepared for the Kamineko's entrance. Before she could turn around to meet Kakashi's eyes, Hiruzen called for her attention.

"Kamineko Harune, we are here today to discuss the events leading up to and during your involvement with the convicted criminal shinobi known as Orochimaru," he began, and Harune felt the pit growing in her stomach.

"Hai," she said uncertainly.

"For the purpose of this trial, we shall overlook the confidentiality of the details of your mission to infiltrate Orochimaru's organization," one of the elders said.

Kakashi, who had been standing in shock in the back of the room since Harune had entered, wasn't entirely sure that he was hearing everything quite right. He turned to Genma, who confirmed that he had in fact heard correctly, and motioned for him to listen.

"ANBU reports here state that on the day you were kidnapped, your squad was ambushed by Orochimaru, and you sacrificed your services to him in exchange for the sparing of your comrades' lives. Is that correct?" the other elder asked.

"It was my mission to do anything and everything I could to ensure the infiltration of Orochimaru's facilities, that's why I pledged my services to him," Harune explained, suddenly feeling confident in what she had to say.

_Just tell the truth,_ she thought to herself. _As long as you do that, you'll be fine. _

"How long was your mission supposed to last?" Elder 1 inquired.

"A few months; just enough time for me to collect a substantial amount of information," Harune quoted her former sensei's words from three years ago, "But no one ever came to get me. I had always just assumed that whoever was responsible for my retrieval had lost track of Orochimaru's whereabouts," the 17 year old continued.

At this, Kakashi swallowed hard. It was his ANBU squad who was in charge of keeping tabs on the defected Sannin; he had already been enraged when they had originally lost track of him, but finding out that Harune had in fact been relying on him caused his anger to resurface tenfold.

"So why didn't you make any effort to escape on your own? You are obviously a very capable kunoichi," Elder 2 asked, eyeing Harune suspiciously.

"Okay, firstly, last time I checked, he was the one called the Legendary Sannin: not me," Harune argued sharply, beginning to get annoyed with the ongoing accusations. Genma couldn't hold back his snigger at the Kamineko's hotheadedness; he thoroughly enjoyed her sassiness.

"Secondly, he experimented on me, mostly in the first year," she added. "I don't know if you've ever been a lab rat, but let me assure you that it doesn't leave you with much energy or freedom to come up with escape plans."

"Experiments?" Elder 1 repeated.

"This scar isn't here because it looks badass," Harune muttered, pointing at the thick scar running across the bridge of her nose down to just below her left eye. Had the given situation not been so grave, Genma would have allowed the 17 year old's comments to amuse him a lot more than he did.

"I got it from the dojutsu experiment Orochimaru was conducting. He merged the powers of the Byakugan with those of my existing Sharingan. Once he realized how powerful he had actually allowed me to become, he branded me with the Curse Mark."

Everyone in the room listened apprehensively as Harune proceeded to explain how it was the three cursed tomoe on the back of her neck and Orochimaru's puppeteering that forced her to commit the crimes she was being accused of, and the more she went on, the more guilt and self-resentment grew within Kakashi, who blamed himself for ever having allowed any of this to happen to the girl he vowed he would protect with his life.

"If Orochimaru was so difficult to escape from, how did you manage to get rescued by an ANBU squad whose mission had nothing to do with you and your whereabouts?" Elder 1 inquired.

"He had sent me on an assignment to retrieve intel from the Akatsuki," the Sannin's former subordinate answered. "I just happened to come across them, and I decided to use that to my advantage."

"I know I sound like I'm trying to rid myself of the culpability of my actions; I swear, I'm not. I know I should have fought harder to remain in control of my own will. All I ask is that you take my story into consideration when you come to a decision for my judgement," Harune finished, bowing her head submissively.

_Why do you always have to take the blame, Harune-chan?_ Genma shook his head. _You and Kakashi, it's like you look for reasons to beat yourselves up._ The senbon weilder remembered how hard both ninja took the passings of their comrades, sensei, and parents, holding themselves accountable for it all. In the the Kamineko's three year estrangement from Konoha, Kakashi had not relieved himself of any sense of guilt for something he ultimately had no control over; in fact, Harune's kidnapping and pushed him further into self-condemnation, and it was now clear that Harune was no different.

"And who's to say that you're telling the truth?" both elders demanded unsympathetically, as though neither had actually listened to any part of what Harune had divulged about her three year association with the alienated Sannin.

The martyred kunoichi snapped her head up at the insinuation that she was lying. Few things offended the proud and loyal Kamineko more than the denunciation of her honesty.

She shot a pleading look to the Sandaime, silently begging him to confirm truthfulness. When he made no move to do so, Harune glared back at the elders.

"Yamanaka Inoichi. He was the one who taught me all the jutsus I needed to efficiently gather intel and he was the one I reported every last one of my findings to," she said through gritted teeth. Hiruzen had promised to clear her, and yet there he was, allowing her to be interrogated mercilessly when he knew the whole story already and could easily uphold her credibility.

"Unfortunately Inoichi-san is not here to confirm your claims; he's on a mission and won't be back for a while," Elder 2 declared.

"Of course he is," Harune hissed. Kakashi wanted to pull the spiteful Kamineko to the side and tell her to calm down; losing her temper with the elders and the Hokage would not bode well in her favour, but as Raido had informed him earlier, he was summoned to work with Genma as a guard for the acting judges. It wasn't his job to keep his friend's temper in check at the moment.

"Sandaime, you know that I'm telling you everything as honestly as I possibly can," Harune implored.

Hiruzen nodded.

"I believe you; I know you are telling the truth, Harune, but right now my word alone is not enough," he said slowly.

"And what exactly will be enough, if the the _Hokage_, who sent me on this mission, isn't able to pass my word as honorable and reliable?" Harune challenged bitterly.

Genma, who despite doubting the young jonin would ever make a move to harm the Sandaime, reminded himself that his duty as the Hokage's bodyguard took priority over his sympathy for his friend, and discreetly manoeuvred himself in such a way that he could seize Harune within a split second should the impulsive and rather unpredictable kunoichi ever do something irrational.

"We will await Yamanaka Inoichi-san's return to Konoha, and then we will determine your innocence or not," Elder 1 declared.

"Until then, we shall pass temporary judgement," Elder 2 continued.

"Kamineko Harune, you are temporarily suspended from any activities regarding those of Konohagakure shinobi," Hiruzen stated, eyes filled with compassion in the hopes that the last member of the feline summoning clan would understand his reluctance to sentence her to something so harsh.

Harune stared blankly at him.

"What…what exactly does that mean," she asked, lowering her voice. She knew exactly what it meant.

"It means that you will temporarily renounce your standing as a kunoichi of Konoha, and continue living as a civilian instead, living by civilian laws, and performing civilian duties," the head of the Sarutobi clan explained. "You will no longer be allowed to go out on missions, nor will you be permitted to leave the Village at all, for that matter."

"Civilians are allowed to come and go as they please," Harune said questioningly, eyes narrowed.

"Consider it a little bit like house arrest," Elder 2 clarified.

"Fucking shit. You really don't trust me," the jonin said, as it finally dawned on her how wary the Leaf's Heads really were of her. The realization brought on a new wave of anger.

"You fucked up," she said, standing up. Both Genma and Kakashi tensed, ready to hold back the newly branded civilian, but she stepped back, passively showing that she wasn't a threat.

"Four and a half years ago, you let your feelings for your old student get in the way of your better judgement, and you fucked up and let him get away," Harune said icily, feeling a lump in her throat. "Then you tried to rectify the situation by sending me on a fucking suicide mission, where of course, you lost me, leaving me to fend for myself under your certifiably deranged subordinate, only to take away my right to be a kunoichi three years later for actually completing the fucking mission. Arigato, Hokage-_sama_," the dark haired civilian snarled before storming off.

"Well. She's pissed," Genma stated the obvious, trying to break the tense silence Harune had left behind.

"Sandaime, are you serious about all that? You're actually withdrawing her status as a kunoichi?" Kakashi asked, still incredibly unsure of exactly what had just happened. Hiruzen nodded solemnly.

"Harune is far too dangerous as it is, coupled with her complete unpredictability…it's best to keep her within the confines of the village as it stands," the Sarutobi sighed. Both Kakashi and Genma nodded in agreement; the Hokage was right. "You two should probably go and look for her; I think she could use some comfort," Hiruzen suggested, and with a 'hai', both shinobi shunshined off in search for Harune.


	7. Dango Shops and Coping Methods

"I thought you said she'd be here," Genma said, unimpressed when the two jonin hadn't found Harune at the memorial stone. "Maybe we should just let her be for a bit," he suggested.

"She couldn't have gone all that far; she's not even allowed to leave the village," Kakashi muttered, racking his brain for anywhere his best friend could have run off to.

"Wait, you don't think she actually did leave, do you?" the senbon weilder's eyes widened, knowing that Harune had never been one to abide by rules. After briefly considering the possibility, Kakashi summoned Pakkun.

"Yo," the pug greeted gruffly, looking up to face the pack leader. He sniffed. "You smell like," Pakkun circled Kakashi, trying to put a finger on, or paw rather, on the familiar scent floating on the Hatake.

"Harune?" Kakashi answered for him. Pakkun's tail wagged immediately at the mention of her name. Genma observed the pug with an amused look.

_Even the ninken love her,_ he thought. _Figures; I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't like Haru-chan._

"Pakkun and I will go out to look for her; if she did leave, he'll track her easily," the silver-haired jonin said, turning to the Hokage's bodyguard.

"You do that," Genma said lazily. Kakashi frowned.

"And you keep looking in the village," he clarified. The tokubetsu jonin shrugged.

"Kakashi, if Harune wants to be found, she'll be found. I'm not saying it isn't a good idea that you and Pakkun check outside Konoha, but I don't think I need to turn the village upside down to look for her," he said, chewing on the senbon hanging in his mouth.

"Che," Kakashi mumbled, recognizing the futility in arguing with Genma. Granted, the 19 year old was pissed off at his jonin counterpart for his reluctance to help in Harune's search, but he wasn't the one who vowed to protect the girl; Kakashi was.

"Good luck," Genma saluted before disappearing.

* * *

><p>"Harune-chan! Come join us for some delicious dango!" Gai called out to the civilian not a moment after she had walked into the restaurant.<p>

The thoroughly agitated and irritable 17 year old put her hand up, motioning for him to wait, and she instead approached the shop owner.

Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, and Anko, who had been eating the sweet dumplings like there was no tomorrow, watched the exchange between their friend and the manager without reservation.

"Did she forget that she has to sit down and someone will take her order?" Anko asked, swallowing another skewer of dango.

The manager shook his head and Harune dejectedly walked back over to the table to join the group.

"They take your order here," Gai reminded her. Had the Kamineko not been feeling so defeated, she would have laughed.

"I was asking for a job," Harune grumbled, sitting herself down between the green-clad jonin and the Sarutobi.

"Harune, you're a kunoichi, you don't need a job," Kurenai said.

"Not anymore," the ex-jonin fiddled with the hitai-ate she wore around her neck. "The Sandaime doesn't trust me, and neither do the elders, so they suspended me from missions and pretty much demoted me to civilian status," she looked down, her black hair covering her face.

"Harune-chan," Asuma said tentatively. The 17 year old looked up.

"Gomen. Really, I'm really, really sorry about before," the Sarutobi clan's heir apologized as sincerely as he could, feeling terrible for the way he had treated her that morning. "I, uhm… I heard everything," he admitted.

"You eavesdropped on my trial?" Harune asked, unsure of whether she was amused or annoyed by this invasion of her privacy.

"You said I could come and hear all about it!" Asume defended himself, not wanting to further upset the girl.

"Relax, it's fine," Harune said, rather passively, but she nudged Asuma slightly with the tiniest of smiles pulling at the corner of her mouth, showing her forgiveness. "Everyone was gonna find out sooner or later anyway, kuso."

"So what are you going to do now?" Anko asked, before silently offering Harune her last stick of dango. The Kamineko's green eyes widened in shock; Anko never shared her food, especially her favourite sweet dumplings. This act of kindness touched Harune deeply, and while her love for sweets rivaled that of Anko's, she knew how difficult it must have been for her comrade, and declined.

"Thanks, Anko, but I'm not really all that hungry right now," she smiled slightly, much to the violet-haired kunoichi's relief, who swallowed the sticky dessert immediately before Harune could have had the chance to possibly change her mind. "Anyway, I need money, so I'm going around applying for jobs. I haven't found any openings anywhere though," she lamented, putting her head down on the table.

"She's not crying, is she?" Genma's voice came from behind them.

"You say that like I cry all the time, kuso," Harune tilted her head back to look up at the 22 year old, slightly offended.

The senbon user smirked, sitting himself between her and Asuma.

"Good to see that civilian life hasn't made you soft," he chuckled. Anko whipped one of Gai's untouched dango at his forehead.

"That's nasty," Genma complained, removing his bandanna, which now had sticky glaze all over the front.

"You're nasty," Anko hissed, in defense of her friend.

"Too soon, Genma," Kurenai reprimanded, shaking her head.

"Aw guys, it's fine, lighten up," Harune laughed, easily dismissing Genma's insensitive comment.

"See, Harune has a sense of humour," the jonin said jovially, folding his hitai-ate and wrapping his arm around her shoulder, only to have it shrugged off.

"Wait, _are_ you mad at me?" Genma asked at this rejection, his mouth frowning but his eyes playful. Harune cocked her head, giving him a puzzled look; she hadn't realized she had wiggled herself out from under his arm.

"Personal space," Gai reminded the elite bodyguard, thinking back to all the times the younger Harune had made a point to kick his ass every time he invaded her personal bubble. The self-proclaimed Green Beast of the Leaf was honestly quite surprised that Genma hadn't yet managed to receive a beating from the hotheaded Kamineko, who in her own right was surprised at Gai's recognition of her what now seemed to have become subconscious aversion to physical contact.

Nodding as if he too remembered what could happen if Harune suddenly decided to not be so forgiving, Genma changed the subject.

"Kakashi is out looking for you, by the way. He thought you left the village," he said, motioning for a waitress. "He's got Pakkun tracking your scent and everything."

"Why would I have left the village?" Harune asked, as the waitress set down a full plate of dango in front of Genma, who pocketed his senbon and dug in.

"Well, you've never been one to care about rules, Harune-chan," he reminded her, his mouth full.

"True," the ex-jonin mused, fiddling with one of the toothpicks on the table. "Anyway, I should get going. I still have to find a job, and I'd kind of like to before the end of the day," she said, standing up.

"If you need help, let us know!" Kurenai offered.

"You'll find one easily; your youth is in your favour!" Gai encouraged.

"Arigato, guys," Harune smiled gratefully, giving her friends a small wave before wandering off.

* * *

><p>"She's not out here," Pakkun grumbled. It was evening now, and he and Kakashi, as well as the rest of the pack, had scoured the area just outside of the village in search for the demoted kunoichi, to no avail.<p>

"Kuso," Kakashi muttered, before turning back in the direction of Konoha.

They were almost halfway back when Bisuke ran off on his own into the forest without notice.

Kakashi watched warily, lifting his forehead protector from his Sharingan eye as a precaution.

"Bisuke!" he heard Harune cry out happily as she emerged from the trees, subsequently causing the whole pack to run to the Kamineko.

"Harune-chan!" Kakashi called out to the dark-haired girl, following his ninken.

"Hey, Kakashi-kun," she greeted, shifting her attention from the ecstatic dogs up to the silver-haired jonin.

"You're not supposed to be out here," he chided the civilian, covering his Sharingan. Harune raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to arrest me?" she challenged, crossing her arms. "I came out here looking for you," she said, not waiting for an answer.

"_I _was looking for _you_, hothead," Kakashi said, leading them back to Konoha.

"I know, Genma-kun told me," Harune ran to match the 19 year old's stride. Kakashi grunted.

"He told me that he wasn't going to keep looking for you," he said.

"It's not like I was actively hiding from you guys," Harune laughed lightly. Kakashi didn't respond.

"Kakashi-kun?" the temporary civilian asked uncertainly, leaning forward slightly to catch his gaze. When he didn't acknowledge her, she stopped him, taking him by the forearm.

The ANBU agent halted, but still didn't make a move to face the 17 year old who was asking for his attention.

"Kakashi-kun," she said, more demandingly, standing in front of him now. He looked down, but Harune was so short in comparison to him that his eye met hers, the green growing darker as the sunlight slowly faded.

"You gave yourself up to him," the Hatake mumbled, suddenly feeling a lump in his throat. Harune blinked at him for a moment before understanding what he was talking about.

"Well, yeah, I did, Kakashi-kun," she replied softly. "I had to."

"You were counting on me to bring you back."

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Harune asked, taking a step closer to the jonin.

"It was my ANBU team that was responsible for keeping tabs on that motherfucker," he growled.

Sensing Kakashi's anxiety and ever-growing instability, Harune glanced ever so quickly at Pakkun, who understood, and shunshined off with the rest of the pack, to give their alpha some privacy.

"Orochimaru is clever and resourceful, Kakashi. He doesn't make it easy for just anyone to track him down," the Sannin's former subordinate said, in an attempt to soothe her best friend's guilt. "It's not your fault."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Kakashi snapped. "It's all my fault. Had I not lost him, I wouldn't have lost you. You could've been back years ago," his voice cracked on the last word, and in a fit of frustration, he turned away, picking up a rock on the road and whipping it as hard as he could. He continued to do so, taking out his rage on every inanimate object within reach. It was all Harune could do to watch the 19 year old vent, hugging herself and keeping her distance so as not to get caught in the crossfire.

The sun had already almost completely set when the silver-haired jonin finally stopped, only to stand idly in the middle of the road, his back turned to the girl.

While the friendship between the two ninja had been sparked by their mutual ones, it had been strengthened and solidified by mutual understanding. Both the Hatake and the Kamineko had repeatedly suffered tragic loss throughout their lives, and though polar opposites in some manners, their coping methods we near identical. Both reacted very aggressively to pain, and even moreso to acts of consolement. It hurt their pride, and made them feel weak.

So when Harune approached Kakashi slowly, it wasn't because she was frightened by the sudden display of fury, but because she wanted to make sure that he was ok with it.

"Kakashi-kun," the black-haired civilian wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him from behind. She could hear his ragged breathing and rapid heartbeat calm as she rested her head on his back.

"None of that matters anymore," she whispered, and she willed herself to maintain her composure even when she felt Kakashi's tears land on her arms. "I'm back now."

Kakashi turned himself around so he could hug the young ex-jonin back, burying his face in her hair, inhaling her sweet, almost sugary scent.

"Besides, it's not like I'm going anywhere anyway," Harune smiled against the ANBU's chest, feeling as comfortable as ever in his arms. "I'm pretty much leashed to the village remember?"

"And yet, you're out here," Kakashi noted.

"It's a good thing you found me; it's a dangerous world outside the village gates for a helpless civilian girl, kuso" Harune mock frowned.

"Civilian girls don't swear as much as you do," the silver-haired ANBU operative said, bending down and motioning for Harune to jump on piggy-back style.

"Ku-so," the former kunoichi repeated, before hopping onto Kakashi's back. Rolling his eyes at Harune's immaturity, he began walking, taking them both back home to the village.


	8. Civilian Life

_**Hey everyone! :) **_

_**I'm sorry for posting this quite late; I just started back at school so things have gotten really hectic for me and I haven't had much time to write. I'll try my best to keep updating at least once a week. I've also got a little bit of writer's block at the moment, but hopefully this chapter isn't too too awful. Thank you so much for your patience! 3**_

In the short weeks following Harune's demotion to civilian, the 17 year old had wasted no time in securing herself a stable job, followed by a new apartment of her own some month and a half later.

The job she had landed was one for which she was grateful; Yamanaka Inoichi's wife, Himei, was more than happy to hire her as the Yamanaka Flower Shop's main clerk after the Kamineko had explained her dilemma to the wife of her former sensei.

* * *

><p>"I wish I could help you further; I honestly haven't the slightest idea as to when Inoichi will be returning, my dear," Himei had said apologetically when Harune had inquired about his whereabouts.<p>

"That's alright, Himei-san," Harune smiled politely. "Hokage-sama said that he'd reconsider my ruling once Inoichi-sensei got back to Konoha, since he's really the only one that can confirm if I'm telling the truth or not," the black-haired civilian sighed, before turning her attention to little 4 and a half year old Ino, who had taken to tugging on the hem of her pants.

"Harune-nee-chan," she said in her tiny voice, big blue eyes looking up to meet the Kamineko's green ones.

"Hmm?" Harune asked.

"Can you take me to daycare today?" Ino flashed a bright smile, a tactic Harune figured the young Yamanaka had learned would get her anything she asked for. The 17 year old looked up to Himei, who nodded her approval, and Harune laughed lightly.

"Of course, Ino-chan," she smiled, her defining fangs protruding slightly.

* * *

><p>And so began Kamineko Harune's responsibilities as not only the new Yamanaka Flower Shop's store clerk, but as Yamanaka Ino's babysitter. Ino's mother, though not a Konoha ninja like her husband, was often an extremely busy woman who held many duties on account of her deep involvement with Konoha's civilian affairs.<p>

It had become Harune's daily routine to pass by the Yamanaka household every morning to walk Ino to the Academy's Shinobi Daycare, spend the day working at the shop, and then pick up the little blond and take her back home, where Himei would usually be waiting, having just gotten in herself.

During this time, Harune and Ino had come to be well acquainted. Ino had idolized the dark-haired former kunoichi since the day they first met, asking her anything and everything she could think of pertaining to shinobi-dom. While at first regarding the youngest Yamanaka and future clan head as somewhat spoiled and obnoxious, she grew on Harune with each day they spent together until the 17 year old decided that she in fact did care quite deeply for the future kunoichi.

Working in the shop was a simple task, much to Harune's delight; Himei was paying her a good salary for a job that required very little effort on her part. Naturally, there would always be the occasional difficult and highly demanding client, and while not an expert in customer service, Harune had always managed to somehow prevent any serious issues.

Saving up money for a new apartment wasn't difficult either; working full time meant that Harune made more than enough cash in no time to start renting out her own place. Kakashi had at first been reluctant to let her go and move out so quickly; he enjoyed her company when he was around. But the last Kamineko's arguments about how the ANBU operative was away on missions more often than not anyway forced him to let her go.

* * *

><p>"You know I'll come see you whenever you get back from a mission, Kakashi-kun," Harune smiled as she tried to comfort her best friend the day she moved her very sparse belongings to her new home.<p>

"Does this mean I'll be reduced to cup ramen for supper again?" the 19 year old grumbled, taking her only box out of Harune's arms so she could open her door. The light-hearted laugh that came from the civilian in response never failed to make Kakashi smile behind his signature mask.

"Kakashi-kun, you know that you can always come to my place; I'll never not cook for you," she smiled, her green eyes filled with affection for the shinobi. "Although, I don't know why you don't just cook for yourself. You're not half-bad at it."

This last statement was true. In fact, Harune had learned in the first few days of living with Kakashi that the silver-haired jonin was actually a talented cook. Why he settled for dehydrated ramen noodles and constant take-out baffled the 17 year old.

"Well, here we are," she said, pocketing her key and relieving Kakashi of the box he held.

* * *

><p>Harune's apartment was a small one, but it held all the necessities, and the Kamineko loved everything about it. She wasn't an overly materialistic person herself, a quality that played very much in her favour, seeing as she wasn't capable of affording much more.<p>

What she loved most about her new home was that it was so close to the heart of the village, so Harune had no trouble getting to work and to the Academy whenever she needed to. The stubborn ex-jonin never would have admitted it to any of her shinobi friends, but civilian life wasn't nearly as horrible as she had expected it to be.

But it _was_ lonely.

While Harune did enjoy her time at the shop, getting to meet customers and even befriend some of the regulars, the temporary civilian found it difficult being so alienated from the shinobi community in which she had grown up.

Just like she had pointed out to Kakashi when he had tried to convince her to keep living with him, most of Harune's closest friends were more often than not away on missions, leaving the demoted jonin back in Konoha. For the restless and near mission-addicted kunoichi, being tied down to the village, although she tried to make the best of it, was grueling.

* * *

><p>"Harune-nee-chan," Ino's voice pulled her babysitter's head from out of the clouds.<p>

"Hmm?" Harune said absent-mindedly, trying to focus her attention on the little blond holding her hand as they walked to her daycare one sunny morning.

"Do you miss your parents when they go on missions?" the youngest Yamanaka asked, her bright blue eyes looking up to the 17 year old. It had never occurred to the Kamineko that Ino didn't know that her parents were no longer with her.

"Yeah, I miss them a lot," Harune said, thinking back to when she was about the same age as the child walking alongside her. Deciding it was in the almost 5 year old's best interest not to talk about how her parents had died fighting the Kyuubi, she left her answer at that.

"I miss my dad," Ino sighed, looking down, and Harune gave her hand a light, comforting squeeze.

"I know, Ino-chan. Believe me, I know. He was my sensei when you were just a tiny baby," Harune smiled. "He'll be back soon. One day, when you're out on missions, he's going to be saying the same thing!" the Kamineko laughed lightly, before stopping at the entrance.

"Alright, have fun, I'll come back to pick you up later," the black-haired civilian patted Ino on the head rather affectionately, who responded by hugging her around the legs.

"See you later, nee-chan!" the tiny blond said, running off to go meet her friends.

It was Genma who spotted the Kamineko from the Academy lookout, recognizing her by the tattoos on her face made visible when the wind blew her long hair back.

"Hey, what's Harune doing here?" he asked curiously, turning to Kotetsu and Izumo.

"She's here every day," Kotetsu yawned, leaning against the railing.

"Yeah, she babysits the Yamanaka kid, so she drops her off and picks her up at the daycare," Izumo added.

Genma chewed his senbon pensively. He hadn't seen much of the demoted jonin since the day of her trial, and he hadn't given what she was doing as a civilian much thought, being busy with his own responsibilities as the Sandaime's bodyguard.

"Doesn't she work at the flower shop too?" Iwashi asked, remembering the time he went to pick up a bouquet for this civilian girl he had taken out on a date. It hadn't worked out.

He and Raido had just walked up onto the lookout just in time to join in the conversation.

"I guess it would make sense; I'm pretty sure Inoichi-san was her sensei after her team was wiped out," the oldest bodyguard pointed out.

"What would you guys do if you got tied down to the village like that?" Genma asked, watching the dark-skinned Kamineko make her way back into Konoha's downtown area.

"I wouldn't be handling it as well as her," Kotetsu said, turning to do the same as Genma.

"You'd lie around in bed all day, feeling sorry for yourself," Izumo grunted, making his best friend laugh.

"Like I said, not as well as her," he repeated.

"We pretty much are though, aren't we?" Raido said. "We're the guards, so we're always stuck here anyhow."

"It's different though, she's not even recognized as a kunoichi right now; the Sandaime demoted her to simple civilian status," Izumo corrected him. "We can still go on missions, but she's really stuck here."

"We should take her out tonight," Genma thought aloud, snapping his head back up when Harune had finally disappeared from view.

"What, you mean to the bar?" Raido asked. Genma nodded, and Iwashi, Izumo, and Kotetsu all cried out in protest.

"She's only 17, Genma, remember?" Raido reminded his eager comrade.

"So? She looks at least 19, and she's hot; they'd never kick out a hot girl," Genma said bluntly, smirking.

Raido rolled his eyes, but all the shinobi stading there knew that Genma was entirely right.

Harune had always been a pretty girl, but none of them had expected her to come back looking so god damn irresistibly _fine_. It had recently become quite a struggle for the deeply derived shinobi to stop themselves from outright ogling her, purely out of fear that if she noticed, she might make them horribly sorry for it.

"It's settled then, she's coming out with us tonight!" Genma grinned mischievously.

"Are you taking us too? You may as well," Iwashi pushed, hoping that the jonin would feel generous.

The senbon weilder simply scoffed.


End file.
